Gemma Ward has insisted that her brief romance with late actor Heath Ledger was "magical".

The model told the Sunday Herald Sun that her relationship with Ledger, which began just two months before the Oscar winner's death in 2008, helped her to overcome personal struggles.

"[Heath and I] first met in New York and we were both struggling with things that I won't get into, and we bonded over that," Ward said.

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She continued: "I kind of met him at first and said, 'Listen, my mum's living with me right now and I'm kind of going through a hard time and I'm not interested in having a serious relationship with somebody right now', and he was like, 'You know, um, let's just be there for each other through these hard times we're both going through'. And we developed a relationship and we started seeing each other."

Ward, who has graced the covers of Vogue and W, also revealed that the couple spent Christmas 2007 together in their native Australia in an attempt to avoid media attention.

"I'm just so grateful I got to meet him and get as close as I did with himâ€¦ We were able to not be in any kind of a spotlight and not have to be meeting with people or be hounded by press or anything. We lived in a magical kind of world where we weren't intruded upon," she remarked.

It was previously reported that Ward plans to attend a memorial service for Ledger next month in Perth.